Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

Nurse Manager

Health provider

Representatives

 PNA

 HR Health Provider

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

IR - SC - 00001667

11/08/2023

This dispute is concerned with a grievance around how the worker feels  a series of issues were handled by the employer and her frustration around the entre situation including her current reporting arrangements all of which she feels have left her isolated in the workplace.

The Union gave a detailed account of the employment history and the experiences of the worker in terms of difficulties she encountered particularly in the period 2017/ 18 and the impact of those difficulties and the related events on her health and her position in the workplace. Compensation was sought for the delays and failings in the processes which were used, the failure to provide the worker with an appropriate reporting relationship for governance and the failure to act on the issues which were investigated and her reports were upheld or complaints about her and others were not upheld.

The employer referred to the detail on the WRC form which referred to a grievance which was not referred through the internal agreed national procedure. An attempt was being made to trigger stage 4 of the procedure when the earlier stages commencing with stage 1 were not utilised. Aspects of the claim were rejected in any event. Reference was made to previous WRC and Labour Court Recommendations under the same legislation where neither the AO nor the Labour Court were willing to insert themselves into a dispute where the internal procedures had not been fully utilised. Correspondence issued by the Director of the CHO on 28 March 2022 stated that the Director had put a process in place involving a retired senior manager to which there was no reply by the Union or the worker.

The parties will be aware of my expressed view that there are occasion where an award of compensation will not resolve a dispute of this nature and neither is there any value in going back into the internal procedures in relation to issues which are ongoing for some years. In the history of this dispute, it is noted that there was a fairly intense period of activity in 2017/2018, that the location involved is actually quite small and that some of the complaints raised by and about the worker were serious in nature if not always in substance. Complaints or reports about the worker were not upheld, whereas those made by her which were formally investigated were upheld. In making these points, no conclusions are drawn from the history other than it was intense and there were different significant moving parts at different stages.

In order to move the situation forward and not backwards, I indicated to the lead representatives that I would recommend that the process put in place by the Chief Officer and specially referenced in their letter to the worker on 28 March 2022 should be completed. Completion would involve the participation of the employer and the trade union as well as the worker with an external person. Preferably the external person engaged at that time would be re engaged to complete the process as he is familiar with the detail and where he left the matter in March 2022, prior to the letter of March 28th    2022 which suggested that the process still had support within the employment. If there were terms of reference those should be used. However even in the absence of formal terms of reference, I am satisfied that the person previously engaged would have the standing and experience to manage the process to completion, with the appropriate level of support from both management and union. A timeline is also required so that the situation does not drift.

Dispur-procedures-reporting relationships